'Unforgivable...': Iran calls US strike on nuclear sites 'betrayal', says 'no room for diplomacy right now’

Addressing a press conference in Istanbul after US strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that his country reserves its right to defend itself because the United States has betrayed diplomacy by helping Israel in its action against the Islamic Republic. Calling the US strike on nuclear facilities “a violation of international law”, he declared that Tehran reserves all options to defend its security, interests and people. When asked if there is still room for negotiations, the Iranian Foreign Minister said that this is not the time for diplomacy as it is the US that betrayed it. "My country has been attacked, we need to respond…The US has betrayed diplomacy; they only understand the language of threat. It is irrelevant to ask Iran to return to diplomacy. Attacking a nuke facility itself is an unforgivable violation of law and should be condemned.

Abbas Araghchi calls US strike ‘outrageous’

“It is an outrageous, grave and unprecedented violation of the fundamental principles of the charter of the United Nations and international law,” Abbas Araghchi said. “The US military attack on the territorial integrity and national sovereignty of a UN member state carried out in collusion with the genocidal [Israeli] regime, has once again revealed the extent of the United States' hostility towards the peace-seeking people of Iran,” he added.

Abbas Araghchi on diplomacy

Asked whether there is still room for diplomacy after the US attack, Araghchi said “not right now”. “The door for diplomacy should always stay open, but this is not the case right now,” he said. “My country has been under attack, under aggression, and we have to respond based on our legitimate right to self-defence.” The US attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, he said, “is an unforgivable violation of international law”.

Araghchi elaborated his response on diplomacy, saying that it is “irrelevant” to ask Iran to return to diplomacy. “We were in the middle of diplomacy. We were in the middle of talks with the United States when Israelis blew it up…And again, we were in the middle of talks and negotiation with Europeans [that] happened only two days ago in Geneva, when this time, Americans decided to blow it up. So it was not Iran, but the US that betrayed diplomacy. They betrayed negotiations,” he said. “I think they have proved that they are not men of diplomacy, and they only understand the language of threat and force. And this is very unfortunate.”

Abbas Araghchi about Trump

The Iranian foreign minister also said that Trump has betrayed not only Iran but his own supporters after attacking Iran today. “While President Trump was elected on a platform of putting an end to America’s costly involvement in ‘forever wars’ in our part of the world. He has betrayed not only Iran by abusing our commitment to diplomacy but also deceived his own voters,” said Abbas Araghchi.

US enters Iran-Israel war

In a major escalation of tensions in West Asia, the US bombed three nuclear sites in Iran and warned the Islamic Republic of more "precision strikes" if it did not end its conflict with Israel. The US attacked Iran's three nuclear sites in Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan. This came days after the US president said that there he would decide within ‘two weeks’ if he needs to bomb Iran. The US strike came on the ninth day of Operation Rising Lion, under which Israel hit several nuclear facilities inside Iran, killing top military officials and nuclear scientists.

As America entered the war, Donald Trump said that ‘there will either be peace or tragedy.’ "This cannot continue. There will either be peace or tragedy for Iran, far greater than what we have witnessed over the last eight days," Trump told a press briefing at the Oval Office.